Plan L
by WhimsicalHeart
Summary: Rhoade decides to cheer up Lulubell and go see the exorcists at the same time. There's one small problem she, Tyki and Lulubell step into the middle of one of Kumoi's "help the exorcist ideas". finally an update!
1. 1 Plan L

A/N: I took a few liberties in this, I know they've moved head quarters and Tyki is not that well at the minute but I'm pretending he is and that the new head quarters is a building straight out of my head and looks freakishly like the old one even its location.

Disclaimer: if I owned -man I am such an amazing artist that it would be composed entirely of stick figures ^_^ seeing as it's not I guess I don't own it. I can dream though. The plot is mine.

**Plan L**

Things finally resembled normality at the order, or at least what passed as normality there. The tired out exorcists were starting to relax, fall back into the usual routine. Lenalee took coffee to the science department, Lavi was busy poking his nose where it shouldn't be, Allen was eating and Kanda was training. All in all things were going ok. Like the calm before a storm, there were signs but everybody was just to relaxed to notice them. After all since when did Kumoi work al day without being forced? And since when did central approve of his schemes? Maybe that had been why they'd left it aloe, central didn't agree to hair brained nonsense, right?

"Tyki?"

"Mm?"

"Is that a really good book?"  
"It is quite interesting"

"Unputdownable?"

"No not quite"

"Don't you want to help me cheer Lulubell up?"

Lord Tyki Mikk looked over the top of his book at his niece, raising one eyebrow slightly. Lulubell had been down? Rhoade clung lightly to his sleeve and gave him puppy dog eyes.

"Aw come on Tyki I have the best idea and you know she's been down well bored lately and I'm sure you'd enjoy yourself too. Come on ask me what I want to do."

He buckled.

"Ok Rhoade what's your idea?"

She giggled in delight and clapped her hands together.

"Well I wanted to go pay the exorcists a visit. I thought we could pay them a short visit. Lulu could also relieve some of her stress."

Something in Tyki warned him that he'd regret this; something else reminded him that Rhoade would eventually get her way or she might go their alone. Reluctantly he nodded his head, he'd go with if only to keep an eye on Rhoade.

"Goody, now I just need to talk to Lulubell."

At the top of a peak stood a tower on a nearly impossibly thin support, inside the tower were people who'd called this place home for awhile and now prepared to move on along with the memories of those who'd died there. Outside the tower were 3 noah and an umbrella, watching carefully trying to agree on the best way to enter.

"You three should not be doing this ~ relo"

"Is there any reason why we're not just using Rhoade's door to get in here?"

"Oh don't be a bore, there has to be another, harder way to get in. Lulubell, you can just look like someone important. Tyki you can just walk in but how am I suppose to get in."

"_With your door_" Tyki and Lulubell hissed together.

"No, no that's no fun. I wonder why they have that hideous head at their entrance" Rhoade mused.

"Because they have no taste. Back to the problem at hand which, may I remind you, is how to get into the building not the decorators taste, or lack thereof. Tyki any ideas? "

"No"

"The earl will really spank you this time ~ relo!"

"I know I know! Look there's an open window up there I'll fly up there on relo and then we'll meet up and create havoc."

Tyki sighed as Lulubell tried to explain the immediate problem to Rhoade.

"Rhoade how will you know where Tyki and I are, he'll probably be spotted the second he walks in and I will look like someone in the building. How will you know who is who, that is why we need to enter at the same place. That is why your door is perfect."

"But I don't wanna use my door" Rhoade pouted.

Tyki sighed again and slung the younger Noah over his shoulder.

"Lulubell you fly up to the window and I'll carry Rhoade and we'll all enter from there."

Three and a half minutes later they were all inside the building. Rhoade grinned widely and ran round the corner, right into Allen.

"ALLEEEEEN! YAY!" she bounced up and hooked her arms round his neck. "I missed you!!!"

To the shock of the infiltration party he didn't react with shock or anger or even fear. Instead four exorcists covered her mouth and whispered: "Shh they'll hear you!" it was then that they took in the exorcists' appearance. They were out of breath and ruffled, like they'd been running hard. The dark hard Japanese exorcist was gripping a katana and peering round the corner.

"Those bastards never do what they're paid for; this is another one of their stupid experiments. Che. I'm going to kill them all."

"I can't believe that central actually approved of this idea." Lavi wailed in a whisper. "Have we no right to dignity and pride?"

"Um guys," Choaji mumbled: "there are three noah in here and the funny talking umbrella?"

"The name's relo baka ~relo!"

"We'll deal with that later Choaji, we have bigger problems right now."

It was all Tyki, Lulubell, Rhoade and relo could do to keep their mouths closed and stop their eyes from bugging out their sockets.

"A bigger problem then us?" Lulubell stammered "What are you talking about, what has happened? Did we walk into the middle of an attack?" she glanced from Tyki to Rhoade. Had they inadvertently interrupted one of the earl's schemes? She just received a shrug as an answer.

"Noooo" Allen dragged out the syllable though he didn't really want to answer. "The problem lies with our resident curly top and his science team. Do you think it's possible to get that hair right on a voodoo doll? " he absently asked the room. "The problem is Plan L"

_It had all started at lunch time. Kumoi had run in with the science team proudly showing off their new formula. He had requested the presence of all the exorcists. The finders and other staff had been gathered there beforehand. They'd looked slightly dazed, well maybe dazed wasn't quite the right word. Blissfully happy was closer to the truth. They looked like they'd just been given an amazing gift. Some of them were holding syringes and a liquid. Kumoi headed the group. A collective sigh was released as the exorcists entered. Some poor fool was making doe eyes at Kanda. It was then that Kumoi started to explain plan L. L for love Bak-san had said. They'd developed a formula that required the DNA of the exorcists, which Kumoi had _luckily_ had on hand. The formula tilted the hormone balance in the brain so that whoever received the drug became devoted to or in love with the person whose DNA was contained in the formula. Complete admiration of the exorcists equalled complete loyalty. Things got really creepy when Leverrier came forward with a big smile and flowers for all the exorcists. Then Kumoi had explained the other part, the part central had demanded which was why they had backed the project, if a body compatible with innocence was injected with such a needle they would fall in love. Central believed the children of two compatible people would be compatible too. _

"And that is the long and short of it" Allen finished, "right now you are far futher down on the list of priorities, first thing is to make sure we don't get shot and second is to avoid our obsessed fans. The tonic was too strong."

The rest of the exorcists nodded feverishly.

"This is even more fun then before oh lets tag along."

Tyki deeply regretted not listening to his gut earlier and keeping Rhoade far away from this place. Now it would be impossible to get her to leave. It was at that point that he felt a fist pass through his stomach.

"KEEP THE NOAH AWAY FROM OUR AMAZING EXORCISTS!" cried the angry mob behind him.

A/N: phew, chapter one is done. YAY! If there are any people you want to see get shot tell me and if it doesn't interfere with my plans I'll do so. An exorcist can be shot by up to 3 needles because they are compatible with innocence a normal person can only deal with one. The main point of this is reproduction so anything other than friendly affection between boys is unlikely. It does remove jealousy. Noahs are primarily dark matter beings and as such their reactions are as unique as they are.


	2. 2 Run Run as Fast as You Can

A/N: next chapter up! I also took time line liberties, they're still in the old HQ and the crimson cloaks are far away, back in the USA. They do know about them though. I welcome your comments and I feel totally unobliged to write if nobody likes what I am writing. In fact I will probably get so depressed that I will come to your house and plant mushrooms. Nyakakakakaka. On the other hand bad reviews are better than no reviews. Flames are not my thing so kindly don't send them. Zack1996: thanks so much you're my first ever review  i draw lots of stickmen they're fun to play with. artemis89: thanks and yeah this is my first fanfic. Yay! I really appreciate you comments, I can't do any yaoi because I made the formula, partially, logical (explained further in). Sorry but I'll still try to make it interesting. Pairings is probably not the right term but oh well (what else can I call it?). Kazeko Aozora: thanks, I also think they are really cool, I loved long haired Timcampy. I'll do my best though there are a few things I can't do(explained further in). in thought talk _Kumoi talks in italics_**, Timothy talks in bold** and Tsukikami talks in underlined writing. **Bold and underlined means Tsukikami and Timothy are talking together.**

Disclaimer: I'm still only good with stick figures so -man is still not mine.

**Run, Run as Fast as You Can**

"We've lost Tyki!" Rhoade howled as Lulubell dragged her along by her arm.

After the mob attacked Tyki had gone straight down and Lulu had run after the exorcists. Ironically that was probably the safest place for them.

"He'll be fine, he's probably the only one here who is entirely safe seeing as the danger comes from humans. He'll just pass right through it" Lulubell was slightly out of breath and Rhoade was temporarily satisfied by her answer, till Bookman Junior chipped in.

"I don't think so, in fact if he thinks like you he's in the most danger. Didn't you see them, hear them? They want to stick those things into you too. It solves a majority of our problem. Which I please note object to I don't want any noah falling for me."

"Any noah that fell for you would be a shame to the entire family" Lulu shot back, "anyway all Tyki has to do is decide he doesn't want the formula to touch him."

"The formula has our blood and _a portion of our innocence_ mixed into it, he can't avoid innocence. They altered the innocence slightly so that someone who got it into them wouldn't become a Fallen One but that doesn't change the fact that it's there. "

The only thing Lulubell and Rhode could do was stare at him in horror.

On ground floor Tyki had run into another group of exorcists, this one composed mainly of ladies, one was, to his surprise, a finder. She was hanging onto a little boy. They too had been uninterested once they had seen that he was himself.

"Cloud-sama what should we do?" asked a pretty girl he recognised from the ark, he vaguely remembered trying to strangle her then catch her for the earl later on. She received her answer from a beautiful blonde with a scar across her face and eyes and a monkey on her shoulder.

"Which problem are you talking about, the one that has just dropped in or the one your brother created? If it's the former try and make sure he doesn't stick his hand through your back other than that ignore it and hope it goes away. If it's the latter, pray you get to Kumoi before I do otherwise you'll see him in pieces and hope general Sokaro makes enough noise that they all find him first. Miranda are you sure you can't use the time record against them? No? very well, Timothy I want you to try and find Kumoi, Bak or someone in the science department and see if you can't get to work on creating an antidote. Have Tsukikami possess your body once you've secured Kumoi and tell us. Emilia and Lenalee will guard your body in the interim"

"You hear that you idiot, yeah you, don't you get sarcastic on me just do what she says, we may get time off studying if we're good. Whaddaya mean you think it's funny when I study?!" the boy seemed to have been arguing with the air behind the finder's head before he fainted. Tyki however dismissed that as he was still smarting over the 'ignore it' comment. Since when was he an it? more than that she expected him to leave if nobody spoke to him for awhile

"Madam, you will find that I –" he began with every intention of giving her a piece of his mind.

He jumped back as the blonde cracked a whip in his direction.

"Keep quiet!"

Everyone else in the room became silent and looked at her.

"Animal training" she said by way of explanation: "you need to be firm"

He definitely should have stayed home.

_Don't destroy that I've worked months on that it's Lenalee's birthday gift._

**Could you keep quiet please I'm trying to think!**

He's quite annoying isn't he master?

**You too!!!!!!**

Timothy was used to dealing with Tsukikami but he had never had to deal with someone who stayed conscious during his possessions, it was disconcerting. It was better now that Tsukikami had returned from his real body, he had at least got some back up now. He examined Kumoi's notes with his new found knowledge and running commentary from the mad scientist.

_That part was quite ingenious, if I do say so myself. You see the problem with the injections is that they are totally objective, it makes no difference to them whether or not you are male or female, exorcist or finder they just do their job. We needed them to be able to differentiate between people so I had to find a way to program, if you will, the formula so that it would react differently based on who it hit. In your average person that is totally random but if the body is compatible with innocence it will first check the gender of the target. It does this by establishing whether or not the y- chromosome is present. It then compares the gender of the person it hit to the gender of the DNA it contains. If they are of the same gender it will create a sense or respect and fondness if they are of the opposite gender it will create an artificial "love' for that person. It even worked on Timcampy, he's now even fonder of Allen then before!_

**Creepy** Timothy and Tsukikami simultaneously decided.

So wha' happens if a body contains dark matter?

_I don't know it was never designed for that and it's not like we'll ever let it leave head quarters so it's not a problem._

**There is a noah here, he has come for a visit**

_Oops._

**Oops, see I don't see why I have to study when grown ups that do well would be better off with common sense not studies. I hope I don't get shot.**

_Don't worry I'm not a paedophile, nobody will fall in love with you they'll just get really protective of you._

Well tha's good.

**Hey what's a paedophile?**

If ya studied ya'd know master, but never ya mind. Haha I can block ya from some of his knowledge!

Grumbling Timothy returned to the task at hand.

**I can't find an antidote or anyway to counter this!**

Don't be silly there must be some way. 

_Come, come now. Be sensible, what would be the point of an antidote? Someone could undermine our scheme. Besides you would have to neutralise the innocence as well as the other things. That would require altered dark matter, which we do not have in abundance. In fact it doesn't exist because I have yet to create it._

**Everybody told me that you were really protective of your sister, I never thought you'd enter her into something like this.**

_Don't be silly I made sure that Lenalee's DNA will never spark love. So she will remain safe._

I would think that central would prevent something like that, the're few enough female exorcists, maybe they could let a male go but a gal…

_Ah but they made me work with Bak to ensure that I behaved myself but he agreed with me. Mwahahahahahahaha_

**Oh I guess that works, so what happens to her when she gets shot?**

There was silence in his mind.

**What? What did I say?**

An hour and a half later things were little better. Tyki was ready to take the head off of general Cloud Nine, and swore that the second he didn't need to keep exorcists alive to keep himself from becoming a pin cushion, he would do just that. They were no closer to finding the rest of the noahs than they had been half an hour before. They had come across another general, the one Sweet Tooth was supposed to deal with, Bookman, the vampire and someone who he'd seen Eye-patch-kun refer to as two pimple earlier. Seen might not have been the right word, heard was more accurate they'd been in the centre stairwell when he'd heard the red head call down to one "two pimple" and this man had responded. It seemed he had been spared the original dose as he stayed with Allen Walker at all times as the finder Emilia stayed with the boy Timothy as his tutor. The exorcists it seemed were scattered through out the building and trying to make their way to a common point. Tyki was touching nothing though. There were several dubious potions lying around that, when bumped into, did strange things. Nobody it seemed knew how to undo the effects of the potions so… Worse still it seemed he was not immune to the needles seeing as they contained the innocence of the brats. They were about 9 floors up now and had just escaped a near death encounter from something they had called Komurin. The boy suddenly woke again, he was what Tyki thought of as shounen 2.5. His accent and personality changed drastically for a start. Other than that there was something that Tyki just couldn't put his finger on that was different.

" Will ya listen to me, tha' guy didn't create an antidote cause it would require dark matter ta counter act the innocence."

Everybody turned to face Tyki. Below them someone screamed and all hell broke loose.

"Hevlaska please hide us or at least help us hide."

Lulubell was seriously beginning to doubt Rhoade's sanity for wanting to come to this place and the exorcists for living here as they begged something that looked an awful lot like Medusa's head for help. She wouldn't be too surprised if everybody suddenly became statues. The slightly more fanciful part did at any rate. She could sense that the … head… had innocence, lots of innocence but she didn't quite know how it worked but she doubted like that.

"Did they make something with your DNA too?"  
"No Allen they could never do something like that, this innocence has changed my body so much in the past century that the basis for human DNA and my DNA is completely different. Their formula would not support nor affect me. I don't know how to hide you but you are welcome to stay in this room for the time being."

"That'd be great thanks Hevlaska-san Marie can warn us if anyone gets too close. Can't you?"

"I hope I will be able to warn everyone in time, the formula greatly altered the beating of everyone's hearts and there is a great deal of noise right now so we can only hope."

They all nodded and slumped down, to exhausted to argue. They'd run into a store house which had terrified the exorcists and had promptly run straight back out but not before one of the boxes had been run into. The big man called Marie (who had been with a man Lulubell thought was decidedly Skinn Boric-ish, he even had a lightening based weapon) was surrounded a small purple cloud of smoke that distorted sound, sight and smell but sight more than anything else. He was, it seemed, blind so it did not bother him to much. He'd been more than capable of restraining his long haired, samurai friend after Rhoade had tried to be polite (at least Lulubell hoped it wasn't deliberate) and said 'arigatou Kanda- nee chan'. Not as it happened, the smartest of moves. Why did I do something that was not part of the Earl's scenario she wondered helplessly? Why did I listen to Rhoade when I knew she was misbehaving, master always knows best. This didn't help relieve my stress it just increased it exponentially. She too slumped to the floor. She had tried to blend in with a second adoring mob earlier but as impossible as it seemed all the people in that mob knew everybody else and she had barely gotten away. An innocent bunch of flowers addressed to _**"**_Lenalee- chan, the most amazing, beautiful and most graceful, destructive butterfly of the skies, the order and our heart_**"**_ had come between her and a syringe. She began to doze, slipping in and out of consciousness when Marie, shot up.

"They've surrounded us! There are people coming from all around us. They've got a second elevator too!"

He'd barely got the words out before a group of crazy men and women rushed in and separated most of the exorcists from the Noahs. Things were chaotic. She was dodging fists, hands, feet and needles and trying to hit something. She saw the exorcist with bracelets for innocence go down with a needle in his neck right before she felt something go through her wrist. Rhoade screamed but Lulubell wasn't paying attention anymore. She felt slightly strange but it passed. She pulled the needle out her wrist in a flat panic. It took her a few seconds to realise that she felt okay. No difference, no obsession she'd still like to kill all exorcists. She needed to get out of here. Tyki and a group of exorcists swooped in, Tyki seemed to be confused as he tried to catch Rhoade but he passed straight through her. He frowned at his hand in confusion and tried again. Rhoade was desperately trying to head in Lulubell's direction but she seemed slightly confused. Her eyes darted everywhere as if she was searching for someone. She lost sight of them for a few seconds as she tried to push her way through to them, people let her pass albeit confusedly. They didn't seem to be able to figure her out, almost she was something or someone they knew but something was wrong. Something they couldn't put their fingers on. She shrugged it off and grabbed Rhoade round the waist pulling her forward.

"Forget it Tyki we'll sort out the problem later, right now we need to get out of here!"

Tyki stared at her in confusion, she wondered if he wasn't mentally affected.

"Lulubell- sama why do you look like an exorcist~relo?"

"Huh?"

A/N: Nee-chan,by the way,is an affectionate/ familiar title for a girl. Literally translate it means sister. Nii- san is the male equivalent.


	3. 3 Infection

A/N: it seems I created a little confusion with Timothy. He is a new exorcist introduced in the most recent arc in the manga. His innocence takes the form of an older version of himself (Tsukikami) which only he can see. He can separate himself from his body and possess people. Tsukikami can also possess people. Tsukikami speaks a little differently, his grammatical mistakes are deliberate. Then there is the usual plea for you, the readers, to rate and review. Quite a few people are going to get poked from here on out. Mwahaha. So here is where the fun really begins. I plan for at least sixty percent of the exorcists to get infected. Who wants to hear what happens to Kumoi once it's all done? Hands up. (reviews up to be more precise) anyhoo, enjoy. Oh before I forget first we need (Bum bum bah)

The Disclaimer: I can now draw fat stick men! Yay! Seeing as there are soooo many fat stick men in -man I must own it. Not.

**Infection**

"What are you guys going on about?"

"Never mind let's get out of here before we discuss this, I've no desire to become a Kebab."

That was one sentiment Lulubell heartily agreed with so she followed them up. She was carrying Rhoade as it seems Tyki couldn't touch anything. They spotted a group of exorcists fighting their way out of the crowd. They had destroyed the lifts and now they were scaling the walls to get out. It seemed to be the best idea. It seemed that Tyki could touch the walls, but a semblance was all it was. He was missing it by a millimetre, as though there was a thin film between him and reality. It was responding to necessity nothing more. She was panting by the time they reached the second floor and was relieved when they chose to stop climbing there. She followed the group into what looked like a storage room and they slammed the door shut behind them.

"wow you're nice Kanda, why are you carrying Rhoade?''

"huh?"

"Baka Usagi! I'm not carrying anybody!"

There was silence and everybody looked between her and another exorcist with a katana strapped to his waist. He drew the katana in question and attacked her.

"What is our problem exorcist?!"

She prepared to turn her arms into whips. She swung her left arm forward, she would wound him but she'd stop him waving that stick at her. Except nothing happened. She then noticed her hand. It was not the grey of her noah self, in fact it was stark white in comparison more than that it was masculine and looked like the hand that gripped the katana.

"What the hell?"

She shook her hand desperately and tried to return to her normal form. She looked desperately to her family, Rhoade's eyes widened in realisation.

"When one of those crazies stuck you with the needle downstairs, it must have been filled with…" she trailed off and stared at Kanda.

"What are you talking about I feel emotionally fine. No attraction nothing!"

That didn't seem to reassure the exorcists, they were all backed against the furthest wall with Kanda pinned behind them. Except for one little boy who was being held by a finder. Why was she not part of the mob? There was another strange man who was not an exorcist but seemed to be unaffected. He could hold his own in a fight which is why Lulubell assumed he hadn't been part of the mob. Except seeing this girl made her wonder.

"So tha's what Kumoi meant. It don't affect noahs th' way it affects the rest of the world. Cause dark matter nullifies innocence and they are actu'lly a l'il different genetically their reaction 're entirely unpredictable."

They all stared at him, she wondered how a little child knew so much.

"How sure are you of this?"

"Very, it weren't designed for use by noahs or th'rd generation exorcists for that exact reason, but we have a slightly bigger problem."

"Slightly bigger how so?" this came from the boy Rhoade was attached to. He had a big golden ball attached to his shoulder. Lulubell would happily kill him, he'd been most of the problem with the egg.

"Well ya see we need an untainted source'f dark matter for the cure and we've only got one left."

"One what do you mean one nobody has got one of those needles near me and Rhoade isn't behaving strangely"

"Tyki you couldn't pick me up."

"Gulp~relo"

Everybody looked at Tyki, horrified.

"No he's right he's been with us," spoke up the finder: "we haven't had a fight since the one near Hevlaska and it was there that he had the problem, right? So we can vouch for him for before."

"Bu' he let people go through him right?"

"Of course I did, fastest way to keep myself safe."

"In the bodies of th' infected the disease is 'ighly dilute, enough that traces of it may have been able to enter ya. There would be few places where it woud've jus' stayed in ya. Ya infected in par's."

Today couldn't really get much worse.

xxx

Everyone was splitting into teams, she'd be going with Allen-kun because he could control the old ark. It was the one place Rhoade never expected she'd need to revisit. Somebody called Kumoi, who was responsible for this mess, was waiting there for her, so they could complete the anti- virus. Tyki was getting more and more annoyed as the teams were finalised.

"I refuse I cannot stand that woman."

"So try sitting"

Cloud Nine it seemed had a bit of a death wish. It appeared that Tyki could touch certain exorcists, assumably the ones whose DNA he had in him. The exorcist he'd dubbed "Eye patch-kun", the general with the monkey, the one called Marie and the little boy were the only ones in the present company but it was enough to make Tyki edgy. Theoretically they hadn't done him damage because it was in such tiny quantities but who knew it was all guess work. He was staying behind with the Monkey lady, Lenalee Lee and Choaji to try and get as many other exorcists through the gate as possible. They would be one of the teams herding too. They would try to get as many of the infected individuals into the cafeteria as possible. They cure would apparently be in a gaseous form. They already had three different packs of "untainted" Rhoade that would be travelling separately. They contained a vial of her blood, some of her hair and something from her dream world. It was for just in case something went wrong. 2 would be taken to the new head quarters and the third would land up at this building's science lab were the boy timothy, who appeared to be about her age, would try to work out the cure. He had some form of link with Kumoi and would be guided from several thousand miles away. Lulubell was to be used as bait, the formula allowed people to identify based on DNA, seeing as she had a portion of Kanda's DNA and she looked like them they should in theory be confused enough to follow her.

"Ok so let's run over this once more. Allen, Link you will be getting Rhoade to the broom cupboard behind the refectory and will open a door to the ark there. You will then use the ark to get to the Andes and scale one of the peaks to get to the new Headquarters. You will then open a door to the ark where Kanda, Lavi and Bookman will be waiting."

"yes"

"Affirmative"

"Okey Dokey"

You three will close the door behind you when you reach the cupboard and wait for Allen to connect again, you will then label the door and open the one to back here. After that you will start rounding up devotees from as many branches as possible."

"Che"

The other 2 nodded their agreement. The man named link took over from Tiedoll.

"Allen and I remain at the doors so that we can get the cure to where ever it needs to be once it is created. Sub teams will also attempt to make it to the ark in case we fail to keep Rhoade clean. Do all the teams know which branches they are responsible for?"

Nods all round.

"Good. Emilia, Tsukikami, Marie you make your way to the science lab and get to work now. Beware of Kumoi's experiments. Lulubell you will deal with this branch, keep far away from anybody from the Asian branch, if anyone can figure out that you are not Kanda they will be able to. When someone finds general Sokaro tell him to get to the North American branch and enlist the crimson crows. General Cloud check what state Fou is in, they shouldn't have been able to affect her. Any questions?"

"Yes," someone murmured behind Rhoade: "Who had the bright idea of pairing our king and queen of tragedy? They'll depress each other."

Rhoade giggled softly. The vampire and the lady from rewinding town, Miranda wasn't it, were going to join General Tiedoll here. She wrapped her arms around Allen's neck, excited for this new game.

"Mmm, this is going to be fu-un" forcing 2 syllables into the word fun. "Can't I play with some of them once you're done? Oooh Lulu, Tyki we could bring some akuma and have a party. He he"

"NO"

"no~relo"

"Absolutely not"

"I am talking to Cyril when we get back and making sure you are grounded."

"Not happening Rhoade."

"We are exorcists here"

"Che"

She sighed, it seemed like everybody was against her at the moment. Even though she'd done some good. It was very lucky that they'd come when they had, how else could they have made the cure and that would have ruined the Earl's plans too.

xxx

_Well there was when I was turning into a noah but that was more painful than it was weird. The birthday party I thought was a dress up party so I attacked all the guests and put them in funny clothes. Nope, nothing tops this._

Indeed there are few enough instances that could be considered more strange then hanging by a talking umbrella (which didn't have any intention of keeping quiet) from the back of one of the members of an organisation that was your sworn enemy while he climbed straight up a cliff face with a golden winged ball pulling his hair to try and help him.

"Link?"

"Yes"

"Are we nearly there yet?" Allen panted.

"No"

"Aw Allen-kun are you tired, I don't mind if we rest for awhile?"

He shook his head "No, no that's fine."

"Plan L can be considered a failed project due to the reaction by the general population to the formula. It is advisable that…"

"Allen-kun, what is that guy doing?"  
"Writing a report in his free time."

Rhoade raised one eyebrow. This was free time? The man didn't seem very sporty but he wasn't struggling with the climb. A horrible noise broke the silence. It sounded somewhat like the roaring of a bear or the growling of some wild animal. She looked to the men, frightened. She was not in any position to defend herself and nor were they. Worse still it could spark an avalanche. Funnily enough they didn't look very worried. Allen looked little short of embarrassed.

"Allen," Two Pimple reprimanded: "when was the last time you ate?"

Rhoade promptly cracked up.

Xxx

Crash, the sound of falling debris echoed in the immediate area. Barely missing the diminutive figures framed against the mountain side. One woman and two men.

"Noooooooooo, I knocked over some of the paper work. Let me commit suicide by allowing one of the other stacks to fall on me by way of retribution."

"Miranda-san, Miiiiiiiiranda-san. Please don't be depressed." A trembling Crowley attempted to cheer up Miranda but all in all seemed to be tearing up himself. He shook her shoulder lightly prompting another avalanche that buried the pair of them.

"Come, come we have work to do. This is Kumoi's office, nobody will even know the difference." Tiedoll reassured the pair as they resurfaced from under the mound of ignored paperwork. Tiedoll carefully pulled a letter that seemed to have caught his attention from the outer layer of the pile.

"Ah this, I remember it well, I sent it to tell Kumoi that I'd found a trail to innocence a few months ago. Oh well I guess it's redundant now I shall keep it and make it the centre piece of an art work entitled 'the World of Lost Possessions". I'll give it to ma-kun as a birthday gift from Yuu-kun, Choaji-kun and I. I have such sweet sons."

"Who's Yuu-kun"

"It's Kanda"

"He scares me" confessed Miranda

"Me too." agreed Crowley.

Tiedoll wiped the tears from the corners of his misty eyes, returning to business and the present moment. He was about to discuss the next move in their plan when a storm of needles and needles rained down on them, followed by General Winters Sokaro cackling like a demented chicken.

"Don't be naughty children, embrace the wonders of love. Somebody direct me to the divine Cloud Nine. Hey that rhymes. Maybe I should write some poetry for her. How perfect art thou let me count the ways. One you always win your battles, two your muscles are comparable to er ah um cattle"

Crowley had just managed to avoid the needles but watched horrified as his companions had needles embedded in them and Sokaro murdered both his reputation and poetry in general. Most of the cylinders glanced harmlessly off their sides but he saw 1 stick into Miranda's neck and another into her thigh. He hoped it hadn't pierced the material and skin but somehow he doubted that. 3 syringes protruded from Tiedoll's hands, which had been raised to protect his face. Crowley shrunk backwards, burying himself in the long forgotten paperwork, terrified of what would some become of sweet, shy Miranda and gentle Tiedoll.


	4. 4 Deception

**A/N:** hey, I'm back with a new chapter, finally! Only to go again. After this, I'm off till September. I wouldn't have put this up but we recovered stuff from my flash stick that I thought were gone for good! The wonders of modern technology! On the bright side, I can still type in that time. There is a little discussion in this chapter involving Marie, Emilia and Timothy/Tsukikami that closely resembles a conversation I had that inspired this story (except it was about what would Komui do?). I've tried to keep them in character but they may well have slipped out. Yeah please rate and review guys, I like to know what you think and I have a tendency to get nervous when I don't. Before typing new chapters I go and read my reviews for inspiration, no reviews equals little by way of quality.

**Disclaimer:** Since there are minimal stickmen in -man, (actually I haven't found one yet) I figure the probability of me actually owning it is 0.

**Deception**

"Choaji are you sure about this?"

"Yes, very sure, don't worry Miss Lenalee."

"Because we were told to stay at headquarters weren't we?"

"They already have Marie and Tsukikami here, there's also that Noah who looks like Kanda-san running around, general Tiedoll, Miranda and Crowley here with back up waiting in the ark. Besides, remember General Cloud had to go check on Fou? Shouldn't we make sure she stays safe? It's dangerous for a single exorcist, even a general."

"I guess you're right Choaji"

"Yes so let's stay here and dump the Monkey woman."

Nobody paid any attention to Tyki's comment but he still thought they should stay back, but he didn't know why. Something pulled at him from the back of his memory, something he'd seen. No, he was getting nowhere, whatever the relation, whatever the warning he'd just have to prepare to fight or run as it happened seeing as he mightn't be much good in a fight. They turned a corner and heard a door slam behind them. A mob of exorcist worshippers stood in front of them and somehow some had got behind them too.

***

"Ne Allen"

"Yes Rhoade?"

Rhoade shifted so that the strange man, who was apparently responsible for the mess, could get another monitor on her. She wondered if the blood and stuff she'd sent would be enough because this guy seemed to be going the whole hog.

"I was thinking, you know all the different types of innocence right?"  
"I know what form the innocence of the people I know, and have seen, has taken." Allen qualified.

"Do you know someone with innocence that looks like 2 bracelets hooked on his wrist? I only saw the back and arm really."

"Yes, that'd be Choaji. Why?"

"he's in one of the groups isn't he? With Tyki, that general and Lenalee Lee, right?"

"Yes, that sounds about right, they're helping round people up at the old HQ."

"I saw him get stuck with one of those needles."  
"WHAT!"

***

Miranda felt different, for want of a better word. Her body was charged in a way it hadn't been in years. She felt like she was 13 again. Her body was just as strange, except now she felt like one of the giggly girls. The ones who'd looked at boys. It had never been her thing, then again none of the children had ever really been nice to her. So no incentive there. An annoying noise took her from her reverie. Where is it? she looked round and saw Komui's phone ringing.

"Hello Miranda Lotto speaking."

"Miranda? This is Allen!"

He was panicking, she reacted instinctively.  
" What's wrong Allen-kun? What's going on? What can I do? I'm so useless"

"Miranda, calm down, breathe. I need your help. I need you to get to General Cloud's team an warn them that Choaji has been infected! They need to confine him at once.

"Immediately Allen-kun!"

***

It was quite a strange site to see, a child working with the precision of an adult genius. Stopping at times to check on what he was doing. A young woman, hovering over him, was watching for even the slightest sign of fatigue.

"But where on earth does someone get such a devious idea?" the girl wondered aloud.

"Love potion."

"Love Potion?" this caught Marie's attention. He felt he had to question it.

"Well… from wha' I cou'd see from that guy's 'ead he got the idea from dem ladies woo always wanna purchase sumfing to make the gents fall for dem."

Emilia's heart beat raced and pumped in a way that he associated with blushing. At least he was told when people blushed and their heart beats often were variations of one rhythm. Marie wondered if she had ever wanted to do something like that. He wondered who the object of her affections was. For a moment, she ceased to watch over the small boy, at what could be called precisely the wrong moment. He heard the whisper of cloth against metal as the boy began to crumple up as Tsukikami's conscious fled his body. She caught him, well the body did not hit the floor, at any rate.

"It makes sense in a strange way. people have sought means for quick love for centuries. They might have shunned women who they called witches but they went to them. For potions like Komui's formula, to get rid of an unwanted child…" he mused.

"I guess you're right. I won't claim to know Komui well enough to make this deduction but I think he ran true to form."

"How so?"

He heard her move round the counter, he assumed she sat. that's what it sounded like in any case.

"Well he may do strange things but they are also, I don't know, sciency, maybe? He took something that was intangible, something born of besotted females,"

Again, that heart beat. She did not stutter as people did when they blushed in front of someone who could see. Maybe she wasn't blushing or maybe people thought he didn't know because he couldn't see."

"… well he made it real in a way. he made it logical."

"And he overdid it, typical Komui. You're right. It also makes sense to inject it in a strange way. it reacts instantaneously; you don't have to wait for the body to digest it"

"They sound more romantic on paper, harder to administer and far more subtly done, in food or something like that."

A third voice joined the conversation and simultaneously the sounds of work resumed.

"In the food, yeah, they done that too."

Something inside Marie froze.

"In the food? You're sure?"

"Well, yeah. I mean can ya imagine how long it wouldda taken ta given all those finders the stuff wiv a shot? They jus' gave them all somefing ta eat."

"Oh no, Allen!"

***

Komui fluttered around Allen and Link nervously, they were preparing to re- enter the battle zone, before the anti- body was complete.

"Would you two please hurry, my Lenalee is out there with a traitorous slug. Why didn't you figure out he was one of _them_?"

"We were a little busy at the time!" Allen complained. "At least we know where they are, headquarters is big but one of the other exorcists might have seen them and I warned Miranda so Tiedoll's team will be on alert too."

Rhoade hopped off the examination table, pouting sulkily. She wrapped her arms around Allen's right one, swinging on it all the while.

"Must you go, Allen-kun?"

"Yes he must you silly girl; it is a life and death situation. If it was not so important that I create an antibody to stop Lenalee in case someone dared to infect her, I would be out there too."

Rhoade swung round to glare at the perpetrator. She kept her mouth shut though, Tyki and Lulubell needed the anti-body as much as the rest and she wouldn't jeopardize their chance. She couldn't resist sticking out her tongue.

"Am I the only one who thinks this is starting to sound more and more like a disease than anything else?" Allen muttered.

She and Two Pimple nodded in silent agreement. More loudly, he asked:

"Life and Death for who, exactly?"

"It is Lenalee's life and her innocence and I will personally see to it that anybody involved the manipulation of her in so foul a manner meets a painful and untimely end."

"You're suicidal?" Rhoade queried.

It took all of two seconds for him to turn on her.

"Of course not, _I _did nothing. By the way, I count anybody who impedes the rescue effort as aiding her manipulation."

He glared pointedly at the three of them. Rhoade was impressed. People who lived with a man like this still managed to think of other things as evil. Allen extracted his hand and exited with his friend. Rhoade sighed and crawled back on to the bed, she sat swinging her legs, forward and backwards. She'd long since lost interest in what was going on, on the monitors. The phone rang, grumbling Komui went to answer.

"Marie, so glad to hear from you! You wouldn'te happen to have got the cure yet?... no? ten times more the pity… what is so urgent?... well yes of course I put it in the food. What did you expect?... Allen? He left with Link to find and retrieve Lenalee, Choaji was infected it see- well how rude, he hung up on me."

***

Tyki lay panting, hidden behind a large pillar. He didn't know exactly what had happened. The dark haired, male exorcist had turned round and attacked them. This time he'd got a full dose of whatever it was, or more accurately, who ever it was. He'd seen the girl receive her fair share too, but than things got a little fuzzy. The mob had separated them and now he lay, unsure of what was happening to his body, hoping that he would remain un found. A brain wave hit him, he had the best idea in the cosmos. Why hadn't he seen it before? It made so much sense, he spent so much time trying to fight them but in reality, they held the solution. He needed a syringe and some formula.

***

Cloud Nine sighed in relief. That was one less thing to worry about; Fou was unaffected, annoyed and ready to help. She had outlined the current plan and Fou had left to find Bak. Apparently, the heads of all the scientific departments had been left uninfected. The formula had a tendency to mess with the thinking patterns in people who weren't compatible with innocence. They needed to be slightly more awake than their subordinates to do their jobs properly. Not some thing you would think if you ever saw Komui. Lau Shimin tensed on her shoulder. She turned to face the danger and found General Sokaro. He looked drunk. Strange, it wasn't a habit she thought he indulged in. not when a clear head was necessary. He strode forward and suddenly he was on one knee in front of her.

"Cloud Nine, you are the most amazing woman in the world, the most beautiful person alive. Athena herself would be envious if she saw you in battle. Will you marry me?"

"Over my dead body."

"Is that a maybe?"

She pulled her hands free and ran.

***

Kanda was in a dark mood. People would pity the next living thing that dared to enter his space. He was with Marie, instead of guarding his post as he should be. He'd been angry enough when he heard that Choaji was infected and they would have to deal with the exorcists and Noah he may have to deal with because of that. Another Noah, who was a carbon copy of himself was currently with Bookman and the crazy who was responsible for the mess they were in. now he was racing to the kitchen in the hope that they could stop the Bean Sprout from eating. He wished Marie had been there seven and a half minutes earlier. Than he would have caught the stupid bean sprout before any real damage had been done. He was going to shave that bastard Komui's head when this was over. He entered the cafeteria with Marie, in time to see Allen politely devour his umpteenth plate of food, if the dishes beside him were anything to go by.

"Kanda, I smell food and I hear the sounds of a person eating."

"Be thankful you cannot see the dishes beside him." Kanda said as he drew Mugen. Finally, he had a good excuse to beat up Allen Walker.

***

"Now that is interesting." Komui concluded.

He had been monitoring Lulubell's reaction to his love potion. It confused him that she felt no attraction to Kanda. Unless they had been the same gender, attraction should have been inevitable, but now this. Except, his formula wasn't strange or malfunctioning, she was.

"What is so interesting Komui?" the Bookman demanded. "What does it have to do with her reaction? Are the Noah's so fundamentally different from us that something like this cannot work."

"Not quite."

"Then what scientist. Explain my reaction."

"You took Kanda's form because of how your dark matter and his innocence responded with each other. That was pure chance, if you had received his DNA at a different time or received a different person's DNA the results could have been totally different but it is the emotions that interest me."

Three people looked at him, wondering what the emotions had to do with anything. Her physical appearance was what changed, her emotions had remained the same and as such, they were less of a problem.

"Well for a start you should be desperately in love with Kanda, the innocence check would have been ruined because of the presence of dark matter, so it would have moved on to the second stage. What gender are you?"

"Female."

"I wasn't asking you, I was telling you what the second stage checked." Komui huffed. "Well it found out that you were a male."

"Pardon me."

"The y-chromosome was present in you, probably a result of you shifting shapes. Your body didn't finish reverting back to normal. As for the rest, it seems your body counter acts the emotional changes and chemical instabilities by sending hormones to the problem areas."

"Let me get this straight, your potion thing thinks that I am MALE."

***

Marie, Link and Kanda were on the ground. The attack had come from the last place they'd expected it. Link had been the first to go, standing so close to Allen had left him wide open, he was unconscious in seconds, thanks to Allen's left arm. He had seen that coming, known it would happen and so it had not bothered him. what he hadn't expected was to hear Marie grunt and collapse. Seconds later Lenalee stood between him and Allen. She'd warned Kanda not to touch Allen. He had ignored her. Moving past the younger girl, he'd made a beeline for the Moyashi, who'd come at him with equal enthusiasm. They'd met half way and Lenalee dealt Kanda a blow, the likes of which he had not felt in a long time. She was on the ready to kill when a screaming Miranda had attacked her from behind. The spectacle astounded him and Moyashi had taken advantage of that opening. It had been little more than a spit second but Kanda was wounded and a split second was all the bean sprout had needed. He had nearly got the upper hand but Lenalee had broken free from Miranda, grabbed the Moyashi's hand and pulled him away. Miranda sat, cradling Marie's head in her lap, stroking his brow. He had been what distracted her in the fight, which gave Kanda an idea as to exactly why timid Miranda had attacked Lenalee.

***

Tyki Mikk carefully chose his needles, each of them containing the genes of a different exorcist. He placed them in a makeshift bag and passed through a wall. _Time to play hunt-the-exorcist_ he thought, with a grin strongly resembling the one he wore to kill.


	5. 5 Antidote or not

**A/N:** I have 2, count 'em , two new chapters for this story, you'll get the next one asap. My main problem is the school internet which risks loosing to a snail. Should it decide to upload my document before I grow old I will publish it. I would like to say a special thank you to Antlers, Opi Uchiha, MoonlitMelody, Random Reader ^_^, Kazeko Aozora, artemis98 and Zack1996 for reviewing in the past. I was proof reading my stories the other day and much to my horror I found out that someone(I am going to kill you little brother) had turned on my auto correct so all the words it decided it didn't like it corrected(no I didn't know the words it corrected it to existed but hey, go windows). A hundred thousand apologies to Kazeko Aozora, artemis98 and Zack1996 as it decided your pen names were unacceptable. I have corrected the error.

**Disclaimer:** if I owned -man you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between exorcists except by hair, seeing as stickmen are not very distinctive creatures. As Allen's left arm is quite obviously different to his right it is safe to say that I own nothing.

**Antidote, or Not**

Lenalee watched over Allen, panic written across her face. Her stupid, stupid brother had forgotten the amount of food that exorcists with parasitic type innocence were capable of ingesting and now it was having a negative effect on her precious Allen. They were hidden in one of the old storage rooms behind the many boxes of long forgotten experiments and equipment. She placed his head on her lap and stroked his cheek. He was sweating so much, one body shouldn't contain this much innocence it simply wasn't right. She felt torn in half, she needed to keep Allen safe, that above al else was important but how to do it. she swept the hair back from his face and contemplated things. So far as she knew there were two ways to save him, the first was the antibody her brother was supposed to be creating and the second was to get Tyki Mikk to pass through him, in theory taking a good portion of the innocence out of his body. He only needed a little removed. The problem came in doing something. It was to dangerous to bring Allen with her as he wasn't in any state to defend himself but if she left him alone, she would risk someone finding him. she looked at the problem from all angles, desperately seeking an acceptable. Curse the people who made leaving him alone a health risk, all those stupid infected- wait a second. Surely they would be willing to do anything to save Allen and her groupies willing to do anything to please her, that meant she only had to leave him long enough to find someone who would fetch Tyki Mikk or the antidote for her. That wouldn't be too hard, she'd spent long enough running from them to know that they were everywhere.

"Allen, I'm going to be gone for a few minutes okay? I need you to keep silent while I go find help, okay?"

He managed a pained nod. She quickly pulled some of the sheets covering the contents of the room off things. She folded one beneath his head as a pillow and another covered his body. She organised a few boxes in front of him so that unless you were looking for him you wouldn't see him. Before leaving, she brushed sweat drenched locks from his face and kissed his forehead.

***

Kanda had managed to get Marie back to the Science Lab with the help of Miranda. She supported the weight of his massive frame on her petite one all the way up the stairs while Kanda carried Link. Getting in on the other hand had not been as easy as planned. He was ready to kill the stupid finder on the other side; she had refused point blank to open the door because he had infected people with him. eventually Miranda had been able to talk her into it before he had cut down the damned door and the people behind it. he threw the Crow member on one of the seas in the crowded room and turned to face her.

"What the HELL did you think you were doing, next time we need to get in you let us in! do you understand! We could have been seriously damaged by those freaks outside!"

Belatedly he noticed that it hadn't been her who opened the door. He blamed it on the damage he'd received in the cafeteria and the pain medication Marie had persuaded Miranda to insist he take. Tiedoll quickly closed and locked the door behind him and embraced him. what the hell was the old man playing at? His face was tear drenched. Kanda snorted, probably felt responsible for the fact that Miranda had been infected. He pushed the old man away from him and gave him a glare that would have sent the most fearsome of akuma running for cover.

"Don't push you Daddy away Yuu-chan." The old geezer said through his tears. " I have just lost precious Daiysha I couldn't bear it if my other sons rejected me in this time of need."

What the hell was the old man taking about now?! Daiysha had died ages ago and Tiedoll had dealt with it. His head turned to the finder girl as she began to speak.

"It seems that Komui hadn't updated his stock of DNA, the General got poked by a needle containing the DNA of a dead exorcist. Timothy thinks that it might affect the way he responds to you and Marie, the other DNA he received."

He was going to KILL that sister-complex bastard.

***

The sister complex bastard in question sat swinging his legs and complaining.

"I'm bored, you people don't let me do anything, besides I need to go help Lenalee-chan. She needs me."

"No" was the resounding response.

"Besides why do I have to put up with them?"

He pointed directly at the two Noah on one of the hospital beds.

"It's not fair, I've got my DNA they should just go bother someone else."

"We don't want to be here either, scientist, and it is your stupid fault that we are stuck like this." Lulubell snarled.

Komui, in a very childish gesture, stuck his tongue out at her.

"See that just proves how stupid you are, anybody who thinks even the tiniest bit of blame lies with me has the mental capacity of a goldfish. I am completely blameless, as innocent as a lamb."

Lulubell, in a very unladylike gesture, snorted.

"Be sensible Komui, you yourself told us that the first batch may well be a failure, in that case you would need to try again, for which you need Rhoade. Besides, what I fail to understand is how this antibody works."

Komui straightened up, glad for the opportunity to appear smart.

"I happen to have the next five trials stored for the heat induced chemical change already, if one of them doesn't work nothing will. You see, it's like this, what I have in essence done is to recreate the same formula, but with one vital difference, the infected person will fall for a Noah not an exorcist."

"_WHAT!_"

"Now you listen to me you sick minded-" a furious Lulubell began.

"You sure the genes don't affect her temperament Komui?"

"No, not really, but would you all let me finish. The innocence and dark matter will cancel each other out and so that side of the formula will be negated. The second thing that will happen is that the formula will have to alter the chemical balance in the brain. To do this it has to undo the current settings that the original formula placed there, by the time it has managed this it will lack the resources to complete the job and make the recipient fall for a Noah. Do you understand?"

Bookman registered the beep that indicated that the formula was done cooking. he also noted that Lulubell went over to check it out. He turned back to Komui, gathering the last piece of information.

"Surely it would make more sense to make it a hate inducing drug, it would follow the same steps and if an uninfected person was hit they wouldn't become loyal to the Noah."

Komui was shaking his head very empathetically.

"No, no, no, hating a Noah means loving an exorcist it would strengthen the attachment to the exorcist."

Before Bookman had time to question his logic, Lulubell brought a needle down, piercing him square in the back.

"I have an idea, let's make you the guinea pig for once and it'll help keep Rhoade safe too."

"Lulubell!" Rhoade howled. "I'm sadistic, not masochistic, what are you doing, do you want to make my life hell?"

"I owe you" was the simple reply as Komui's eyes glazed over.

***

Tyki was breathing hard, catching the exorcists and avoiding the mob was harder than he had anticipated. He carefully checked round the corner before running out. His mind registered shock as he ran into solid air. That was unusual.

***

"I'm not convinced Fou, we may have overdid it a little bit but that is easily rectified. A drop here, a change there, I have already isolated the main problem in the dosage. It was quite simple really, all we did was have too much obsession/ affection hormones. A simple change and Plan L will be back on track. You know that the great me rarely makes mistakes."

Fou clobbered him round the head.

"Baka Bak! This is one of your worst ideas and you frequently make mistakes."

"Why did you kick me?!" Bak howled indignantly.

Fou glared at her some what thick friend and tried to figure out what could make him realise the error in his ways. Surely, she had known him long enough. She'd been there when he was growing up. When he was learning how to control the powers of the guardian deity, as he fought his way to the top as a scientist in the black order till he eventually came to be a branch head. When they had created what Kanda now was, when he had stalked Lenalee… when he had stalked Lenalee!

"So I guess it doesn't matter what happens to Lenalee, if she gets somebody's needle."

Bak broke out in hives as he realised that he and Komui had made a rather egregious oversight.

"Lenalee" he managed to choke out.

***

Crowley and Lavi were hiding in a broom closet. Crowley had come running and told the first person he could find about the state of affairs. Lavi had replaced Kanda as the door guard and was listening in a type of morbid fascination to the story.

"You are absolutely sure, no mistakes Crow-chan?"

"I saw it with my own eyes Lavi we have to warn the others and get to Cloude Nine before Sokaro does."

"You are probably right; I'll contact Komui and Panda-jiji to tell them that we're moving, I'm sure they will agree with it."

"L-l-l-l-l-l-laviiiiiiiiiiiiii!", came the cry from behind him.

He turned round, intent on teasing Crowley and telling him not to worry. His voice failed him as he saw a mob of what appeared to be Lenalee supporters with a few Allen fans mixed in for good measure approaching them with an angry look on their faces. He slammed the door closed and said the only thing that seemed even vaguely appropriate or sensible.

"Run!"

***

**A/N:** so who can guess what happened to Tyki? How was he stopped by 'solid air' and who has any ideas as to what his plan is? I'll tell you one thing: the first antidote was NOT the correct one.


	6. 6 Narcissism

**A/N:** thank you to everyone who reviewed, I hope this chapter answers a few more questions, I don't know how long I am going to drag this thing out for but I'm really getting in to it now. Tyki's idea took on a life of its own so it's a little different from what I planned but still acceptable. Please rate and review, it is nice to hear what you have to say, even if it's just "interesting story" or "not really my thing" or "please continue"

**Disclaimer:** I just realised that if I wrote -man because I use stick men most people would be under the impression that Kanda was a girl and that Rhoade was a boy because the only way I have to differentiate between genders is by hair length so I quite obviously don't own -man.

**6. Narcissism**

It didn't take Tyki long to realise there was someone there, someone he couldn't see. An exorcist obviously, and one whose DNA had unwillingly been injected into his system. He quickly ran through all the exorcists he knew and their abilities. He couldn't think of any with an ability that would stop him seeing them. Something stirred at the back of his mind. First, a memory of Rhoade asking him if he'd changed his brand of cigarettes then one that was hazier. One seen through eyes that had felt more animal than human, driven by instinct, a time he wished he could forget. He had cornered the children and in all likelihood, he would have killed them had the general not appeared then. He didn't remember exactly how only that one second the children had been present, the next the General seemed to be his only opponent.

"I know you are here Cross Marian, and even though my ancestors will curse me for this, I need your help and I get the feeling that you may need mine. I have an idea, one that benefits both of us."

***

Rhoade stood on her candles, as far as she could from Komui. He had a look in his eyes that was usually reserved for Lenalee.

"Rhoade-chan, come down, I'm your big brother. I'm going to keep you safe and then we're going to find Lenalee. Then we can be one big, happy family, unaffected by this war nonsense. Come on, don't be scared, I'll protect you."

"You're the problem" Rhoade howled. Using her door didn't seem like such a bad idea at that moment in time. Not at all unoriginal. She glared at Lulubell, see if she ever tried to make her feel better again. Some people had no gratitude.

Lulubell and Bookman were trying to sort out the next batch of antidote, and keeping as far away from Komui as possible. Bookman was what Komui considered a threat to Rhoade's safety and Rhoade wasn't happy with Lulubell so they were both on his blacklist. They sorted through the potential antidotes, trying to find one that looked promising but they were coming up with nothing.

"Komui! Which one is next in line, which one is most likely to act as an antidote?"

Drawing Komui's attention had not been the best of ideas. His drill popped out of nowhere and suddenly Lulubell got a very bad feeling.

"Silence! You have no right to talk in the presence of my precious Rhoade, Noah who has upset her. You voice will grate on her delicate hearing."

Rhoade, ask him which one we should put in next!"

"Why should I?"

"unless you have plans to join a new family I advise you do."

Rhoade glared at them but turned to Komui. She mightn't like helping them but she certainly knew what was in her interests.

"Komui, which potential antidote should be heated next?"

"One of the ones labelled K2 and then letters, the rest are that stupid Bak's ideas. I based them on the reverse of his formula."

Lulubell immediately picked up the batch labelled K2LME3.

"No don't"

"Why"

Bookman picked some of the ones with Bak's formula.

"Komui is many things, one of them is scientifically smart, he knows enough to have made the one based on the reverse of Bak's formula work. They probably used the affection created by Bak's drugs in the final drafts for exorcists, and we need them to be level headed more than we need the mobs to be. The current draft will probably work for the masses."

"I don't see why."

"Look at how he is behaving now. The only understanding Komui has of love for a girl, is an over protective desire to guard his little sister. Alter that slightly and it'll create a devotion to a person, like now but they created love in the exorcists. To do that they would have needed Bak's work."

They put the concoction in to bake. Unfortunately, they were so intent on the antibody that they didn't notice the mob until it was too late. They poured into the room, hell bent on finding something. For the most part, they ignored Bookman and Lulubell but Komui was not so lucky.

"Where is it?"

"Lenalee-chan needs the antibody!"

"Allen-kun will die and then we will hold you personally responsible!"

Clambering hands pawed at Komui's pockets, upsetting glass vials and science projects with a carelessness that terrified the sane occupants of the room. The other three potential cures fell to the ground. Shattering on impact. They seemed to find what they were looking for. Rhoade noticed with a sinking heart that they had picked up half of the so-called antibody. The Bookman seemed to notice something that the rest of them didn't. He flung open the furnace and grabbed the baking antidote. He ran from the room shouting behind him. He didn't even stop to remove the oven gloves or take the antidote from the red hot metal it was in.

"Get out! He's going to release the fumes from the last batch! Brat, where are you! Come heat this up before it cools down and then we really have nothing left."

Rhoade and Lulubell barely made it. The last thing they heard as they fled the lab and Ark was maniacal laughter and the sound of gas escaping from a container.

***

Lenalee had heard the sound of the mob she'd sent to retrieve the antidote. It had sounded smaller, but that hadn't bothered her. Her brother hadn't got to where he was without creating weapons capable of incapacitating people. All that worried her now was that he might have stopped them getting the antidote. She flitted out, relief filled her when she saw the syringes in their hands. She didn't even stop to listen to what had happened.

"Allen? Are you okay? Don't worry, I'm going to fix this."

She emptied as many syringes as she could into his bloodstream and the breath returned to her body. Already she could see that this had helped him, she made a mental note to kiss her brother when she saw him again.

***

Lavi and Crowley were breathing hard, luckily enough the mob had been to busy looking for other things to pay much attention to them. That didn't mean that once they had done whatever they wanted to that they wouldn't have time to play bash-the-exorcist. Well, more accurately stick-a-needle-full-of-a-maniac's-love-potion-into-an-exorcist. Quite frankly the people in the room consisted of two Noah, who Lavi wasn't particularly fond of, especially the sadistic child who had came close to killing part of him, the maniac, no guilt there, who had created the problem and Bookman. Out of the four people in the room there was only one Lavi would consider saving. He kept an eye out for the one in question and when his teacher ran out of the room, carrying something, Lavi had pulled him aside. It seemed to be some form of antidote. Lavi heated it with hi-ban. They had eventually found somewhere that could be considered safe and had stopped. Bookman had quickly explained all that had happened in the room and they had made plans from there. Crowley and Lavi had gone to try and warn Marie's team that they might have an antibody, and that they could not make one based on Komui's formula, while Bookman went to find Bak. Bookman had kept the antidote and had told them which formula to use so that Timothy could create another batch. They'd been extraordinarily careful and then everything had just gone wrong. Lavi didn't know exactly what happened but Cross and Tyki Mikk had appeared out of thin air in front of him. The next thing he knew he had three needles in his neck and he was flat on his back.

"And you are sure this will work Noah."

"No, your scientist created it, if you can't see any potential problems then I certainly can't but our two test subjects don't seem to bad."

Test subjects? Lavi felt outraged that someone had dared to use _him_ as a test subject. Couldn't they have used one of the more lowly people? Like the finders, or his fans, or another exorcist?

"I doubt Komui allowed for someone doing what you have."

"Well what else could be done? You need to stop the exorcists falling a love with one another. Till there is a working antidote this is the best way."

"Well I guess if you can't love someone else you should love yourself but still injecting them with their own needles…"


End file.
